International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) is a front organization for food, beverage and agrichemical industries, and was founded by Coca-Cola. A recent study has found that ILSI has undermined China’s public health policies on obesity by networking with nutrition scientists to nudge “government policy into alignment with the company’s corporate interests.? Alarmingly, ILSI is also active in India, and key Indian functionaries who sit on ILSI’s board also occupy central roles in India’s primary food regulator, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).

The Coca-Cola Company in India has launched a new “healthy and nutritious beverage?geared towards “active, growing children?that contains more sugar than Coca-Cola. Minute Maid Smoothie, the newly introduced beverage under the company’s “Health and Wellness?portfolio, contains 12.6 grams of sugar per 100 ml. Coca-Cola contains 11 grams of sugar per 100 ml in India.

The Indian government has introduced sin taxes on sweetened carbonated beverages such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi because of the negative health impacts of products with high sugar content. The sin tax was brought into force on July 1, 2017, and makes India one of the first countries in the world to implement a nationwide sin tax on sweetened carbonated beverages. Soft drinks in India are now listed alongside more established harmful products such as tobacco.

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) ?the country’s premier government organization responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the regulation and supervision of food safety ?announced yesterday that it has entered into a partnership with Coca-Cola India to provide training to vendors “in order to ensure safe and nutritious food for all.?FSSAI’s partnership is misguided and antithetical to the food regulator’s mission, and must be scrapped. FSSAI should not enter into partnerships with entities it is supposed to regulate because it ensures conflicts of interest.

US based PepsiCo has been forced to cease operations at its bottling plant in Kanjikode, in the south Indian state of Kerala because of water shortages, the India Resource Center can confirm. Tthe state government of Kerala has issued strict measures to ease drought conditions in Palakkad district (where the PepsiCo plant is located), and ordered industries using water as a raw material to reduce water use by 75% until May 2017, and also noted that legal action will be taken “against the companies that disobey the order.?

In a major development, an Indian High Court has ordered that water from the river Tamirabarani in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu must not be diverted to Coca-Cola and Pepsi producing plants in Gangaikondan due to the severe water shortages in the area. The court order came as the result of a public interest litigation filed by FEDCOT, a statewide consumer organization, which had sought to stop the use of river water for production of Coca-Cola and Pepsi product because water scarcity has diminished both drinking water as well as water for irrigation in the area.

Coca-Cola’s second largest bottling plant in India has shut production due to pollution violations, the India Resource Center can confirm after a visit to the plant yesterday. The bottling plant in Hapur has been under scrutiny by the National Green Tribunal ?India’s Green Court ?since 2015, and a number of inspections by government regulators have found the plant to be flouting environmental laws in India, and also operating without valid licenses, or No Objection Certificate (NOC).

Medical professionals from the US, UK, India, Brazil and Mexico have released a statement in support of a sin tax on sugar-sweetened beverages in India. The statement, which has been mailed to key Members of Parliament and ministries in India this week, notes that a changing Indian diet is leading to an alarming increase in rates of obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular diseases in India.

In continued troubles for the Coca-Cola company in India, a press release issued March 17, 2016 indicated that the company has stopped production in another two bottling plants in India ?in addition to the three bottling plants that were shut down earlier this year.

The Coca-Cola company has stopped production at its controversial bottling plant in Kala Dera in Jaipur, and has no plans to resume operations. Groundwater levels have plummeted ever since Coca-Cola began operations in 2000, and the increased difficulty in accessing groundwater from the depleted aquifer is one of the main reasons for the plant’s closure.

A proposal to tax sugar sweetened beverages like tobacco in India is being welcomed by public health advocates. Taxation to reduce consumption of tobacco has been successful when used alongside measures such as public education and restrictions on advertising and marketing to children, and stronger labeling laws.

Eighteen village councils (panchayats) in the immediate vicinity of the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Mehdiganj in Varanasi district in India have come together to demand that the groundwater used by Coca-Cola be stopped immediately due to the growing water crisis in the area.

The India Resource Center welcomes new guidelines by the government of India which strengthen regulations governing use of groundwater by industries in India. The new guidelines are significant because they will apply to industries using groundwater regardless of when the industry was established. The latest guidelines could put an end to the excessive and destructive groundwater usage by industries that were “grandfathered in?/i> under the last guidelines.

As campaigners that have closely scrutinized Coca-Cola’s operations in India for over a decade, we find Coca-Cola’s assertions on balancing water use to be misleading. The company’s track record of managing water resources in and around its bottling operations is dismal, and the announcement is a public relations exercise designed to manufacture an image of a company that uses water sustainably ?far removed from the reality on the ground.

Activists from India and Norway are calling on Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global ?the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund ?to exclude the Coca-Cola company from its investment portfolio because of the company’s irresponsible water management practices in India. FIVAS from Norway has produced a report ?Dead in the Water ?that highlights Coca-Cola’s water mismanagement in India.

Coca-Cola’s claims on their water management at their disputed bottling plant in Varanasi, India are now under investigation by the court and the government. Coca-Cola claims that it has recharged almost three times the amount of groundwater than it extracts at its bottling plant in the village of Mehdiganj. The claim is difficult to believe given the company’s dismal track record on managing water resources in India.

In an extraordinary development, PepsiCo’s bottling plant in Suriyur in India has sought ?and will receive ?police protection for water being brought to the disputed plant located in a water-stressed area. Additionally, the Pepsi beverage manufacturing plant will also receive police protection for vehicles leaving the factory with finished Pepsi products.

Bowing to public outrage, the state government of Tamil Nadu in south India has cancelled plans for a new Coca-Cola bottling plant in Perundurai in Erode district. The cancellation of the land allotted to Coca-Cola for a Rs. 500 crore (USD 80 million) bottling plant came as the result of an extremely well-coordinated campaign led by farmers and political parties who opposed Coca-Cola’s plant because it would worsen the already existing water shortages in the area, and bring more pollution into the area.

Government authorities in India have declared the groundwater around Coca-Cola’s bottling plant in Mehdiganj as “over-exploited??a category indicating the highest level of stress on the water resources. Over-exploited indicates more water being extracted from the aquifer than replenished ?a highly unsustainable state.

Coca-Cola’s application to expand its bottling plant in Mehdiganj, Varanasi in India has been rejected by the government, according to sources close to the India Resource Center. Anticipating that the local and international campaigns had succeeded in getting the application for expansion rejected, and in order to save face, the Coca-Cola Company has written a letter to the chief secretary of the state of Uttar Pradesh and the UP Pollution Control Board in the last week stating that the company was “not to pursue the expansion?of the plant, according to sources close to India Resource Center.

Coca-Cola’s bottling plant has been shut down by state government authorities in Mehdiganj in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. The closure is a major victory for the community in Mehdiganj which has actively mobilized the community and engaged with government agencies to shut down Coca-Cola’s plant. The Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) ordered the plant to shut down because it found the company to be violating a number of conditions of its license.

A new study by Dr. Aneel Karnani, associate professor of strategy at the University of Michigan's Stephen M. Ross School of Business, has found Coca-Cola’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) claims around its bottling plant in Kala Dera in India to be lacking merit. The study concludes that Coca-Cola's operations lead to “tragedy of the commons.?

Local authorities in Varanasi in India are preparing to evict Coca-Cola from land that the company is occupying illegally at its bottling plant in Mehdiganj. The action to evict Coca-Cola comes as the result of an order (in Hindi) that was passed by the Tehsildar, the local revenue officer, on December 16, 2013 after an investigation conducted by the authorities at the insistence of local villagers.

PepsiCo’s announcement that the company will invest another $5.5 billion in India by 2020 ?to manufacture and sell more junk food to Indians ?does not bode well for the long term public health of the country. More junk food is not something India can afford, nor should it encourage. For India, a growing obesity problem is sure to further burden an already overstressed and under-funded public health system in India, as well as adversely impact the quality of life of millions.

Fifteen village councils (panchayats) have called upon the government to reject Coca-Cola’s application for expansion because it would further worsen the water conditions in the area. They have also called for an end to Coca-Cola’s current groundwater extraction in Mehdiganj in Varanasi district in India. The fifteen village councils are located within a five kilometer radius of the Coca-Cola bottling plant and are affected by Coca-Cola’s bottling operations.

Coca-Cola India’s plans to expand its production capacity at its bottling plant in the village of Mehdiganj in the state of Uttar Pradesh have been opposed by local community members and allies. In a letter written to the government agencies responsible for granting the license, Lok Samiti and the India Resource Center have asked the authorities to reject Coca-Cola’s application for expansion and to shut down the current operations immediately to ease the water problems in the area.

The Coca-Cola company has located one of its bottling plants in Mehdiganj, a rural and agrarian area located about 25 kms from the city of Varanasi, in east India. Coca-Cola’s bottling plant, which has been in operation since 1999, has severely damaged the groundwater resources in the area ?both through over-exploitation as well as pollution of groundwater and the soil.